Final tally: Democrats pick up 2 seats in Pa. House

Monday

Nov 24, 2008 at 1:52 PM

HARRISBURG (AP) — Democrats are heading into the coming legislative session with a five-seat advantage in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, according to final election tallies obtained Monday.

MARK SCOLFORO

HARRISBURG (AP) — Democrats are heading into the coming legislative session with a five-seat advantage in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, according to final election tallies obtained Monday.

The results from two suburban Philadelphia counties showed Democrats winning three neck-and-neck races that had been too close to call before absentee and provisional ballots were accounted for.

Monday was the deadline under state law for counties to report their results to Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, who certifies the results.

The final three races gave Democrats a net two-seat pickup, a 104-99 margin in the House and a bit of breathing room after spending the past two years with the barest possible majority, 102-101.

In the other two races, Democrats won in districts last held by retiring Republican state Reps. Art Hershey and Carole Rubley in Chester County. Tom Houghton won Hershey's seat and Paul Drucker took Rubley's.

Party officials on both sides said they were not aware of any attempt to challenge the legislative results in court.

The Nov. 4 election saw the Democrats win six Republican districts while losing four seats to the GOP.

Five of the Democratic gains were in Philadelphia and its suburbs; the other was in Williamsport. Republicans flipped Democratic districts in Beaver, Bucks, Elk and Westmoreland counties.

The freshman class in the House consists of 15 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

Joe Shafer, executive director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said the caucus was encouraged by the results in the face of an ongoing scandal in which 12 people connected to the House Democratic caucus have been charged.

Attorney General Tom Corbett has said all four caucuses are being investigated and he expects additional arrests.

"In a difficult political environment, where many predicted that the attorney general's partisan investigation would threaten the Democrats' hold on the state House, we were successful in not only holding the majority but expanding it by two seats," Shafer said.

Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, who coordinated his caucus' campaign effort, said he considered the loss of two seats a step forward from 2006, when the Republicans suffered a net loss of eight and gave up the all-important majority status.

Republicans had to cope with Democratic candidate Barack Obama's strong run at the top of the ticket this year, Turzai said. Obama won the state by about 10 percentage points.

"We have positioned ourselves to take back the majority in a nonpresidential year, and the goal here is to run with a strong Republican gubernatorial candidate," he said. "We held back the Democratic flood."

The state Senate stands at 29-20 in favor of Republicans, with a vacancy because Sen. Jim Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, was re-elected following his death in a car crash. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, is expected to announce by Dec. 11 the date for a special election to fill that seat.